Only God Forgives [OST] (LP)

Cliff Martinez

Amoeba Review

07/15/2013

The soundtrack for Nicolas Winding Refn’s troubled follow-up to his global smash, Drive, is as relentlessly bleak as its subject matter. Gone are the glittering nocturnal synthesizers that marked Cliff Martinez’s score for that film. In their stead are foreboding drones, both digital and natural, as in the glowering strings of “Do As Thou Will.” As the film will have its fans among the detractors, Only God Forgives isn’t for those looking for ’80s pop-style hits among a cosmopolitan synthesizer score. Serious music score buffs will find a lot to love here. Each piece builds separately of the whole but connects through the Thai-flavored tones, film noir inspiration and general sense of dread — the film concerns an American expatriate (Ryan Gosling) in Thailand involved in a series of vengeful, violent acts. Tracks like “More Hands” call to mind classic horror soundtracks with atonal strings, while one of the film’s haunting musical themes returns on “Leave My Son in Peace,” which combines a tribal drum thump and flutes with dark guitar lines and synthesizers. The film’s Thai actors, Vithaya Pansringarm and Yayaying Rhatha Phongam, lend their voices to a couple of songs that ooze noir cool; Pansringarm’s warble makes the jazzy “Can’t Forget” like something from a Thai version of Casablanca, and Phongam’s vulnerable voice makes “Falling in Love” affecting, amid its karaoke-ish backdrop. However people feel about the violent, minimalist Only God Forgives, Martinez’s expressive soundtrack is a work of art on its own.